The handcuffed man, who was later identified as a teacher named Mohammed Karim, says he was chained to his wife’s death bed on Monday as a result of a quarrel over his wife’s care. Infected with COVID-19, Muna Ismael, 44, died from coronavirus complications.
Speaking to Rudaw, Karim, who has since been diagnosed with the virus, recounts the disagreement beginning when health workers took away two of the three oxygen cylinders that he had bought for his wife himself.
Karim says he objected to the equipment’s removal, and got into a scuffle with the health workers, smashing some equipment in an unsuccessful attempt to stop them from removing the cylinders from the room.
A security force intervened and restrained Karim, tying his hands to his wife's bed. The teacher says staff did not "listen" to his pleas, and his wife eventually succumbed to the virus right in front of him.
After his wife died, Karim was arrested based on a lawsuit from the Kirkuk Public Hospital for the damages he caused on medical devices. Released on bail for 10,000,000 Iraqi dinars, he recounted the story to Rudaw's Hardi Mohammed shortly after he took matters into his own hands and dug his wife's grave himself.
"They [health workers] came into the room and threw an [oxygen] cylinder at us as if they threw it to a dog. When I checked, I saw it was empty. The cylinder was empty," the distraught sobbing husband recalled, sitting by the grave of his now-buried wife.
Karim says that his wife is survived by two children and she had "no underlying health conditions." She was hospitalized last week after her health had deteriorated.
As an eyewitness, the husband describes the conditions in Kirkuk’s hospitals as miserable, because "no one cares about the patients."
"No one responds to you or comes to check whether or not you need oxygen. Every patient must be accompanied by a person to attend to them, because the health workers just do not do it," he added. "I told a physician to change the oxygen cylinder. He declined to help saying “it is not my business, you should do it yourself'."
Mohammed's brother, attributes the death of Ismael to "negligence" from the hospital staff, saying that they will file a lawsuit against the hospital.
According to the latest data from the Kirkuk Health Department, 2,426 COVID-19 cases have been recorded since the city’s virus outbreak in February. Of this number, 123 have died.
'Inhumane action’
Captured by an identified person in the Kirkuk Public Hospital on Monday, the viral footage’s original poster describes Karim’s treatment as unconscionable.
"Even somebody charged with Terror Law No. 4, would not be treated the way they are now treating him," reads the text published with the video. "His wife has died, yet he has been tied to the bed.”
Additionally, a number of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) politicians have called on the Iraqi interior ministry to launch a probe into the incident.
"Such inhumane action is intolerable," Rebwar Taha, a PUK MP in Baghdad said following a meeting with Kirkuk health authorities. "The Iraqi health ministry and the health department of Kirkuk have both separately launched their own investigations into the inhumane action to punish those [..] who committed this action."
"This is a serious matter. It concerns the entire population of Kirkuk. The perpetrators must not get away with what they have done to Mr. Mohammed and his wife," he added.
Following the incident, a group of teachers held a protest Tuesday in front of the hospital, objecting to the way their colleague was treated.
"How is it just to handcuff that teacher? They have removed his wife's oxygen.. It's a travesty.. That he should be handcuffed to the bed on which his dead wife lies," Luqman Rostam, a teacher among the protesters, told KirkukNow.
The Kirkuk Health Department published a photo of a broken device apparently broken by Karim, calling the teacher's action "inhumane".
